35,000 years ago Asiatic men began to enter America

21,000 years ago Excavations at Talpacaoya near Mexico City give evidence of obisidian and fire.

6,500 to 2000 BCE domestication of corn, squashes and beans

1800 to 300 BCE Olmec culture flourished

150 BCE to 750 CE Teotihuacan culture flourishes. City reaches population of 200,000

950 CE to 1150 CE Toltecs flourish in Central Mexico

1300 CE Mexica migrate into the Basin of Mexico from the north

1325 Island settlement of Tenochtitlan founded in Lake Texcoco.

1350 Mexica become vassals and mercenaries of the Tepanecs

1375 to 1396 Acamapichtli reigns as the first tlatoani of Tenochtitlan

1502 to 1520 Moctezuma reigns as the ninth tlatoani.

1519 Hernan Cortes and the Spaniards arrive on the Gulf Coast near modern-day Veracruz and make alliances with Cempoalans and Tlaxcalans and conquer Cholula.  Enter the city as guests of Moctezuma. Juan Cortes, a black slave of the Spanish conquistadors infects the city with small pox.

1520 Cortes goes to coast to intercept a Spanish contingent from Cuba coming to arrest him; Pedro Alvarado attacks and kills Aztec nobles during an important ceremony.  Moctezuma is killed and Cuiltahuac drives the Spaniards and Tlaxcalans out of the city before dying of small pox.

1521 Cortes and 50,000 Tlaxcalans lay siege to Tenochtitlan and conquer the city; the Aztecs make a last stand in the market place of Tlatelolco; Cuauhtemoc surrenders Tlatelolco on August 13.

1531 The Virgin of Guadalupe appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac.